Posted by CareBear04 on February 3, 2005, at 13:18:59
In reply to Re: Stimulant withdrawal » ed_uk, posted by zeugma on February 2, 2005, at 15:51:05
zeugma-- i hope you're feeling better! i think i remember reading in your posts awhile ago that you have problems eating on stimulants and that you've been experimenting to try to find one that doesn't speed you up too much? is that accurate or am i mixing you up with someone else?
what i've experienced and heard about strattera from my later pdoc is that it tends to work best for children and less well for adults. it didn't do much of anything for me. i went up to 80mg a day in split doses, then added provigil. i liked the provigil and it definitely helped me focus without ruining my sleep. however, with provigil and strattera together, i could take the strattera or not and couldn't feel any difference. have you tried provigil? it did make me a bit of a zombie as far as repetetive tasks or doing one thing for hours on end when i was alone in my dorm room. a good thing is that it suppressed my appetite, but when i made myself remember to eat, even setting alarms if necessary, i had no problem with working up an appetite to eat.
about your sleep-- do you think it's related to your meds or psych condition or related to a pulmonary problem? my sister is a few months from graduating from med school, and i actually had a conversation with her about sleep medicine yesterday. i was surprised when i learned recently that most sleep doctors are pulmonary specialists and not pdocs like i had previously thought. i guess the "true" sleep disorders originate in the lungs and breathing, while insomnia and restlessness of a psychiatric or medicine origin are best dealt with in therapy or with a pdoc. i don't know if this is relevant or not.
going from 60 to 0 cold turkey from any stim sounds like torture to me. i know that i should take vacations from my adderall and ritalin to make it more effective because i've worked up quite a tolerance to them. but the thought of being off them, being so sluggish and cranky, scares me and prevents me from taking even weekend breaks. how are you doing with this?
what other stims have you tried and what experiences have you had? i've tried high-dose wellbutrin, strattera, provigil, regular adderall and xr, regular ritalin and concerta. i once asked about focalin, but hardly any pharmacies around me carry it or can even order it for some reason. my pdoc had never heard of it either. i don't know what other options are. some people mentioned tricyclics to augment, but my drs won't prescribe them because of some heart abnormalities.
i'd like to hear more about your experience if you get a chance. thanks!
poster:CareBear04
thread:446337
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050202/msgs/452468.html